Efforts are being made to bolster the contingent of UN peacekeepers on the Golan Heights,even as it is being scaled down in the shadow of deteriorating stability between on the Israeli-Syrian border. Fiji, a tiny chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean, agreed to send it troops to strengthen the...
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A G8 meeting today between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the Syrian conflict ended without apparent progress. Reuters conveys the mood awkward: Both leaders looked tense and uncomfortable as they addressed reporters after about two hours of talks, with Putin staring mostly at the floor as he...
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Violence in Turkey continued over the weekend and into Monday. On Saturday thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched in the streets overnight Saturday, and observers noted via social media that demonstrations beginning Monday evening were louder than ever. Louder even than yesterday in my neighborhood … — Claire Berlinski (@ClaireBerlinski) June 17,...
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Egyptian security forces are preparing for anti-Hamas demonstrations. Popular suspicion that the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group may try to bolster the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood against large-scale anti-government protests planned for June 30 has been deepening. Arab-language media is reporting that police authorities are preparing for the backlash. Theories under which Hamas provided...
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Western officials are scrambling to evaluate the diplomatic consequences of extremist statements made by Jibril Rajoub, a Palestinian Authority (PA) official often emphasized by Western diplomats as a relatively moderate voice. Rajoub is a former head of the Preventative Security Force and a member of the Central Committee of PA...
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The six member nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council agreed on earlier this week to take action against Hezbollah loyalists who reside within their borders. The decision was made public in a joint GCC statement: The GCC will take measures against [those] in the GCC countries affiliated with Hezbollah in...
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